NetApp extends sponsorship, Endura Racing merges

Having ridden its first Grand Tour this year after a wildcard slot to the Giro d’Italia, Team NetApp is continuing its evolution and will join forces with Endura in 2013.

The sponsor and eight riders from the current Endura Racing setup will move across to the German squad next season, completing discussions held on the subject this year by Endura with other teams. That backer will be on board until the end of 2014, while the storage and data management company NetApp has extended its sponsorship of the team until the same point in time. The squad will be known as NetApp – Endura.

In addition to that, Fuji has come on board as the new bike supplier to the team.

Team manager Ralph Denk says the team is on the up, and sees today’s news as a continuation of that. “We have undergone a sporting development that is virtually unprecedented. In three years we have managed to develop young riders into significant performers at the Giro d’Italia,” he said. “With ten victories so far, the team races its best season ever. I am delighted that NetApp continues to support this.”

The team went close to stage victories in its first Giro when Bartosz Huzarski and Jan Barta finished second on stages ten and fourteen. Its victories include Barta’s TT win and overall success in the Settimana Coppi e Bartali as well as the squad’s team time trial success there; it also took the Rund um Koln with Barta and the GP Stad Zottegem with Matthias Brandle.

It is currently fifth in the UCI’s Europe Tour ranking, two places ahead of Endura Racing. The latter’s Jon Tiernan Locke is a superb third overall, but is rumoured to be moving to a WorldTour team.

Denk is convinced the amalgamation will prove to be a decisive moment. “That we have been able to resign NetApp and secure Endura as a key new partner is a milestone in the history of our team,” he explained. “NetApp’s commitment to the team’s success has been fundamental to our achievements and bringing Endura onboard as an ambitious brand that deserves to be presented at the most important races in the world. I am convinced that together we will be even more successful.”

The team states that it will keep as its core, the ‘German license and riders that have ridden for Team NetApp since it was set up or have been mainstays during the current season,’ while adding eight riders plus some team staff from this year’s Endura Racing lineup. There will be twenty riders on board next year.

Amy Love, vice president of Brand and Communications at NetApp, said that the sponsorship renewal should boost the visibility of the sponsorship worldwide as the company starts looking to the North American and Asia-Pacific regions.

“The team’s success over the past three years, and the ways our customers and channel partners engaged with the cycling community serve as key reasons for our sponsorship expansion,” Love said. “The Team NetApp - Endura professional cycling team is an outstanding platform to express how NetApp enables our partners and clients businesses to go further, faster.”

Endura Ltd director Jim McFarlane should also see his company’s brand get a big visibility boost. “Our Continental Team, Endura Racing, is now one of the top ranked teams in the European Tour and this progress is the product of continuous commitment and hard work,” he said. “Team NetApp and Endura Racing share the same ambition of progressing to the highest levels of sporting success. Our commitment to Team NetApp - Endura means that we will be present at some of the biggest races on the planet.”